18 
ALMOND CHERRY. 
violent, attacking the very seat of vitality, the nervous 
system, that no remedies have any time to operate. In 
the hand of the skilful physician, however, this volatile 
poison proves sometimes a powerful remedy. 
ALMOND CHERRY, ( Cerasus Caroliniana, Mich. 
Flor., vol. 1. p. 285. Wild Orange Tree, Mich. Sylva, 
vol. 2. pi. 89.) This elegant tree, nearly allied to 
C. Lusitanica , appears to be common along the banks of 
the Mississippi from New Orleans to Natchez. It is 
also indigenous to South Carolina, Florida, and Ar- 
kansa. It forms a fine evergreen tree 40 to 50 feet 
high, flowering in March and April. The leaves, ac- 
cording to Elliott, are very poisonous, frequently destroy- 
ing cattle that are tempted to browse on them early in 
the spring. It is known to the French inhabitants of 
Louisiana by the same name as the Laurel of Europe, 
Laurier-Amand. 
The fruit of this species is a small black bitter cherry, 
with very little pulp and a shell so thin as to crack 
between the fingers. A second, (C. occidentalism and 
probably a third species of this section from St. 
Domingo, in the collections of Poiteau, has the same 
thin, fragile shell. These seem to form a separate genus 
from the true Cherries, no less than from the Laurels, 
and may be called Leptocarya, in consideration of the 
thin and fragile, merely cartilaginous shell of the drupe. 
In this respect the drupe affords a much more import- 
ant distinction than that which exists between Prunus 
and Cerasus. 
